Karnataka - Belgaum   

`Don't give clearance to mining firm'

Staff Correspondent

Move to increase bauxite ore output

BELGAUM: The Kinye gram panchayat has urged the Department of Forests, Ecology and Environment not to grant environmental clearance to a mining company, which has proposed to increase its production of bauxite ore in Bijagarni, Bokanur, Navage and Hangarge villages of Belgaum taluk, as it is an ecologically sensitive area.

In a memorandum faxed to Principal Secretary of the Forest Department and Member Secretary of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) department on Monday, panchayat president Suryakant Killekar said the public hearing proposed to be held in Bamanwadi village on Tuesday was in violation of the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification (EIA) 1994 and 1997 under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. The board had not complied with the statutory requirement of holding public hearings as prescribed under the EIA notification.

He said documents on the proposed project were not made available in vernacular languages, nor were they available in any of the offices, including the offices of the Deputy Commissioner, the tahsildar or the District Industries Centre. Information about the public hearing was not communicated to the gram panchayats concerned, which should have been done 30 days in advance.

According to the EIA notification, at least three representatives of the panchayats concerned and three senior citizens should have been nominated for the panel by Deputy Commissioner, but this also had not been done. He said the mining lease had expired in 1993 but mining operations were continuing.

The pollution control board had issued consent for establishment and operation and now the board was holding a public hearing to obtain environmental clearance. Some of the land where mining was proposed was private forestland, which needed separate clearance from the Centre according to the Supreme Court's interim order.

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